Review: Escaping from Houdini (Stalking Jack the Ripper #3) by Kerri Maniscalco

Title: Escaping from Houdini

Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #3

Previous books in this series: Stalking Jack the Ripper (#1) | Hunting Prince Dracula (#2)

Author: Kerri Maniscalco

Genre: YA, mystery, historical

Publication date: September 2018

Published by: jimmy patterson

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis: Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they’re delighted to discover a traveling troupe of circus performers, fortune tellers, and a certain charismatic young escape artist entertaining the first-class passengers nightly.

But then, privileged young women begin to go missing without explanation, and a series of brutal slayings shocks the entire ship. The disturbing influence of the Moonlight Carnival pervades the decks as the murders grow ever more freakish, with nowhere to escape except the unforgiving sea.

It's up to Audrey Rose and Thomas to piece together the gruesome investigation as even more passengers die before reaching their destination. But with clues to the next victim pointing to someone she loves, can Audrey Rose unravel the mystery before the killer's horrifying finale?

My rating: ★★★☆☆

Reading back the notes I left myself about this book in preparation for writing this review, I’m not quite sure why I decided to give it 3 stars because all my notes seem to be complaints 🙈 I am tempted to drop my rating given that, but I’m gonna trust past me that I actually enjoyed this book more than those notes are letting on 😆 So yeah, there’s a little insight into my feelings about this book. Get ready, because it might get ranty 🙃

Where do I even start? At the beginning maybe? In the first chapter Audrey Rose is thinking about weddings and wedding nights when she JUST got together with Thomas 🙄 We all know how I feel about instalove. Although one could argue that this is not that. But still. And then this was even worse because of what she does later in the book with that stupid love-triangle-but-not-really situation that was going on. Ugh!

So we have Mephistopheles who is part of the carnival on the ship and he’s super charming or whatever 🙄 I didn’t see it. In fact, he said something that made me go, “Oh, so you’re not friends with consent, are you?” And maybe he was joking, but from then on, I was not into him or his arrogance. It was annoying. But also I just hate love triangles. AND I just grew to like Thomas! What the hell! So throughout this whole book Audrey Rose is hanging out with this guy and it was frustrating! She makes this deal with him that he would teach her things like acting and sleight of hand in exchange for some information that will set her cousin Liza free. I get why she wants to do this for her cousin, I do, but let Liza do whatever she wants! Jeez. And then she feels bad because she feels like she’s betraying her cousin? Then stop! Ugh. Oh and then—this is rich—Audrey keeps telling herself that she’s lying to Liza in order to save her from LIES? Yeah, real nice Audrey. Not hypocritical at all 🙄

And the whole thing with her learning from Mephistopheles, it wasn’t just for the deal, she actually wanted to learn from him. And I was just like, why? WHY does she want to learn sleight of hand?? HOW will it help her in science? I don't get it! I hate this 😫 Every time she was doing her little magic stuff, I was just wanting to be with a dead body instead. Lol. I mean, I like magic, but the descriptions of it in this book were not great. It was hard to follow. Oh and given what happened in the finale, her practicing magic was SUPER unnecessary!! She just stood there! It was all pointless!

Oh and then she lies to Thomas! And the fake flirtations with her Mephistopheles? It made no sense! Wholly unnecessary! This asshole was just trying to come between them. And Thomas is smart. I thought he'd be mad but what happened was worse. He tried to understand! She lied to his face and he’s trying to understand! 😭 He doesn't deserve this! The book literally started off with her thinking about marriage and the freaking wedding night, and now this? I hate her. Thomas loves her and is respectful of her choices... She doesn’t deserve him 😠

So what did I like about this book? Well, I liked the quips and flirtations between Thomas and Audrey when, you know, she wasn’t busy wasting time with Mephistopheles. Lol. I liked that we got more Liza in this one. It was nice to see more of her here. I also like the autopsies. I find them to be very interesting and engaging. This book had too much magic and not enough autopsies. Lol. Thomas and Audrey playacting a murder was also fun. Lol. I loved it and it’s what I’m here for 😆 Speaking of murder, I also liked that not 100 pages into the book and we already had 2 murders on our hands.

But this book was just lacking. I need more sleuthing and more action. It almost feels like their investigation was half assed because Audrey was so freaking preoccupied with Mephistopheles. Oh, and then finding out who the killer was? Totally underwhelming. We found out who the killer was and I was like, “Them? Really? I mean... I guess?” And Audrey Rose being dumb throughout the entire book was frustrating! The love triangle was so unnecessary! And the idea of carnival on a ship is really interesting, but overall, I was quite underwhelmed by it.

All that being said, the book was fine. I swear I didn’t hate it 😆 Lol.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊